Chapter 6: The Bandit King

Audio Version:

Mylo stumbled his way towards the village with Keelan in tow. Soon enough, he saw the watchtowers and rough-hewn log walls of the village through the foliage.

Keelan whooped. “We made it!”

Mylo waved at the guards in the watch towers next to the gate. “It’s Awesome Possum and Keelan. We come bearing a gift!”

“No one calls you that, Mylo.” The guard with the frog mask laughed.

“It’s better than Ambidextrous Amphibian!” Mylo shot back. “What kind of person would aspire to be a swamp-dwelling bug eater?”

“Frogs are hard to catch and impossible to keep a hold of. You just want to get a pass for playing dead while everyone does the heavy lifting.” Ambidextrous Amphibian grumbled.

The guard on the other side, an Elementi exile, groaned something that sounded like a slur against Animalians. “Could you two give it a rest? Just open the gate and let them in before the sun sets.”

Ambidextrous Amphibian huffed and puffed, raising the gate with the hand crank.

The portal that stood outside the gates had disappeared. They were fickle things, portals.

Laughter and singing greeted them as they entered. A bonfire roared in the center of the village, and cooking fires lit every corner. There was something heartbreaking about this humble celebration of the Twin Moons, knowing that he wasn’t wanted here. He had become an outsider once again.

“Keelan!” The village chief, Jevar, hugged his boy. “Forget the rules, I was about to go searching for you. Your mother is half-sick with worry.”

“Mother said I needed to start providing for the family, so I went hunting. Mylo found me, and look what we caught!”

Mylo presented their pheasant with a formal bow. “I know you wanted me gone because of the trouble I caused with the hunters. I bring you this gift to ask for a pardon. Please allow me to stay while the Twin Moons are in the sky. I’ll go hunting by myself, so I won’t trouble the others.”

Mylo bit his tongue to stop more and more words from flowing out.

Jevar scowled. “Who told you we wanted you gone? Card told me you were feeling ill and wanted to sleep it off.”

Mylo’s brain stuttered. “Vela told me to go.”

Jevar smiled. “There you go, letting that old woman tell you what to do again. She’s like a grandmother to us all, but she gets all kinds of strange ideas in her head.”

A weight lifted off of his shoulders. “You mean I can stay?”

“You brought back my son, safe and sound, and in one piece.” Jevar slapped him on the back. “You can stay for as long as you like.”

After he stored his pheasant in the village larder, Mylo accepted a generous portion of spiced meat and sat down at the fire away from the dancers. As much as he might want to join in with the revelers, he stuck to the shadows. He was accustomed to not bringing attention to himself.

The clouds parted, and the red moon shone down upon the village. The wrathful eye of the Creator, the red moon of Avari, the goddess of death.

Every night, the blue moon of the goddess Eshe fought to temper the red moon. Every one hundred years, the sisters fought once more, fighting for the fate of the plant. If the blue moon lost, all life on the planet would cease. Or so the tale went.

Those of Elementi or Mineralite origin worshiped the Creator, offering peace to close the wrathful red eye. Others of Animalian descent gave thanks to their Warrior God, Tzin. These exiles came from every country and were united by the common purpose of trying to survive. They had different philosophies, different religions, and had committed different crimes. The Outlands were the great equalizer.

Mylo ate with relish. The cook seasoned the harnark meat with the most delightful spices. It was nothing like the raw meat he often ate with berries and roots when he traveled on his own.

As a child of mixed Outlander origin, Mylo did not worship the Creator or Tzin. He chose instead to listen to the quiet comments and wise insight of the being he called the Preserver.

The strong yet sweet smell of burning wood took him back to an earlier, happier time. He remembered sitting around a campfire, wrapped in his mother’s arms. His father would appear from the woods with dinner ready to roast. Their friends spoke in words he could not understand. Their voices would mingle with the sound of the crackling fire, lulling him into a deep slumber.

His sweet remembrance halted when the wind shifted and whisked the scent away with it. He left the remainder of his meal to follow the mysterious scent. It had something layered within—an earthy, spicy aroma that tickled his memories and shook them loose.

He remembered a shadowy corridor of one of the many ancient ruins in the Outlands. There was a green glow emanating from a doorway, but the source was just out of sight. He wanted to know what was there, but his mother pulled him away and scolded him for disturbing her work.

Another memory, shaky with fear. His father told him to hide so he could save Mylo’s mother from something horrible, something-

Mylo’s boot snagged. He let out a squawk as he fell on his face in the dust. He touched his wet cheek, and his fingers came away red.

Aw, not again.

The familiar aroma emanated from a pastel blue tent. The flickering light of the burning incense cast the shadow of a woman in a meditative posture.

Incense. That’s what the smell is.

Vela lifted the tent flap. Her frizzy white hair spilled out of her hood. “What are you still doing here? I told you to leave this morning!”

“Yes, I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Mylo dusted off his linen shirt.

Vela grabbed the sides of his face and forced him to look at her. “If you want to save yourself and this village, you will leave tonight and not look back.”

Mylo pried her hands from his face. “What is wrong with you?”

Arrows struck the guards in the watchtowers. The revelers grew quiet as all eyes watched the guards fall.

Vela groaned. “It’s too late!”

An angry army of bandits pounded on the gates, spurring the villagers into action. They dropped whatever they were doing to rush to arm themselves.

“What did you do?” Mylo demanded.

Vela just pointed at the remaining guard. “It’s him! That treacherous toad!”

Ambidextrous Amphibian was winding up the gate to let the bandits inside.

“Ambidextrous Amphibian is opening the gate!” Mylo shouted, but there was nothing they could do to stop him. The other guard was dead.

The villagers didn’t stand a chance against the coming tide.

No, no, no, not again. I can’t lose everyone.

“Keelan!” Mylo grabbed the boy’s shoulder. “Gather your friends and meet me behind the larder.”

Keelan picked up his baby sister and ran to whisper the message to his friends.

Mylo ran behind the hunter’s lodge and dug up his traveling gear. He didn’t have time to grab any food, but he should be able to hunt for whatever they needed until they made it to the next village.

The gates opened with a groan to admit a horde of bandits, armed to the teeth.

Mylo met the children behind the larder and used his knife to pry open a hidden hatch in the wall.

“What about my maahi?” Keelan whispered, and the other scared children nodded.

“She will come to the other village as soon as she can. Your parents are fighting for you to have a chance to escape.” Mylo stepped through the hatch and found himself surrounded by bandits. Dread bubbled up from his stomach.

Ambidextrous Amphibian told them about the escape hatch.

“Please, do what you want with the rest of us, but let these kids go.” Mylo begged. “Don’t make them watch.”

“We’re not letting anyone out unless the Bandit King gives the order.” The bandit, wearing a fox mask, hissed. Her red hair struck out at random angles from her head, giving her a crazed appearance.

The bandits marched Mylo and the children back into the village.

He whispered, “Just close your eyes and don’t open them, no matter what you hear.”

The fox bandit shouted. "Surrender, or we’ll kill the children!”

The villagers cried out in anguish, and one-by-one, the parents surrendered their weapons. The bandits quickly subdued the ones that kept fighting and separated the remaining Outlanders into small groups.

From the gates, a Mineralite rode in on a barely tamed nimr. It hissed and spit, shaking its head against the mechanical halter, but it couldn’t unseat its rider. Muscles rippled underneath jet black fur, and its claws were sharp enough to rind a man to shreds.

“I am the Bandit King. I’ve heard a rumor that one of you has a powerstone that can heal. I want it.” The Bandit King dismounted the nimr. He covered his face with a scarf and wore a wide-brimmed hat with a purple iridescence harnark feather. He had a mechanical arm and wore an assortment of weapons on his body.

Mylo barely stopped himself from touching the pendent under his tunic. He caught Keelan’s eye, and the young boy shook his head slightly. He wouldn’t tell.

Who else has seen me heal? Old Vela, a couple of the hunters, maybe another one of the village children.

A jolt of pure adrenaline burned in his chest. Ambidextrous Amphibian hounded me after I fell from that tree a few moons ago.

“I see you are going to need a little encouragement.” The Bandit King gestured, and each of the bandits grabbed a villager. “For every minute you waste, I will kill one of you.”

Mylo’s heart stopped. Preserver, give me wisdom.

Run. The Preserver replied in his mind.

If I run, these people will die.

The red-headed bandit grabbed one of the children, and Mylo cried, “Have mercy, she’s only ten!”

If you don’t run, this man will kill many more.

“Do you think I am playing a game? I don’t care if I have to kill and search every last one of you, the healing powerstone will be MINE.” The Bandit King unsheathed his sword and cut down one of the villagers.

Keelan flinched as the body hit the ground. His eyes widened, and all the blood drained from his face.

Mylo could hear the sound of his innocence breaking. It was the same sound he had heard the day he lost his family. The world spun, and inky darkness pulled at the corners of his eyes.

No, I can’t faint, not now!

He couldn’t let this bandit kill these people, but without the healing powerstone, he was as good as dead.

RUN!

The Bandit King grabbed Keelan’s maahi, Helen. “Do you have the powerstone?”

Keelan screamed.

“I have it!” Mylo took the pendent off and held it up for the Bandit King to see. “Please don’t kill anyone else. I’ll give you the powerstone.”

“No! You can’t let him have it! There is more at stake than the lives in this village.” Vela cried, several bandits drawing their swords to prevent her from stepping any closer. “It will be impossible to stop his conquest of the Outlands. The powerstone will only make him lose his mind! You have to run!”

Mylo took a step back, but the fox bandit blocked his path.

The bandits shoved Vela to the ground. “Shut your mouth!”

The Bandit King shoved Helen aside and laughed. “You have the healing powerstone?”

Up close, Mylo could see a mess of scar tissue underneath the Bandit King’s scarf.

“You are the weakest-looking exile I have ever had the misfortune to lay my eyes on.” The Bandit King tore the pendent from his hand.

Mylo gasped as the familiar, coursing warmth of the healing powerstone left his body. He felt incomplete. Even a slight breeze was enough to make him wobble.

“Dresden and his army of pathetic commoners thought fit to strip me of my rightful throne and throw me to the wolves.” The Bandit King admired the powerstone, glittering in the moonlight. “With this powerstone, I will unite the Outlands under one throne, and I will take back what is mine.”

The Bandit King addressed the defeated villagers, “I will leave behind a small troop of my men to keep your village safe. No longer will you have to cower in fear of the monsters of the night. No longer will you live out your days, wondering if tomorrow will be your last.”

The Bandit King looked Mylo in the eyes. “Take the supplies we need from their larder and take the fittest villagers as tithe.”

“You said you would leave them alone!” Mylo’s breath came in shallow gasps, and he fell to his knees.

“If you had come forward when I first asked, I might have felt more generous. Your people will be returned to you at the end of a year.”

The Bandit King fitted the pendent around his neck and grunted as the powerstone activated. The purple energy rippled across his body.

The Bandit King mounted his nimr. “I will be in my tent. Don’t bother me until we are ready to move.”

“What have I done?” Mylo held his head in his hands. It was too much. He would die, and the Bandit King would still take whatever he pleased from the village.

“Mad Rue! Come help me tie this coward up in a place of honor. I want everyone to remember the reason the Bandit King descended on this village.” Ambidextrous Amphibian motioned at the crazy fox bandit.

Together, they dragged Mylo to the guard tower. He had no fight left in his body.

Strung up like a carcass and left to freeze in the growing darkness. He watched the bandits tear through the village. Mylo let go of his grasp on consciousness and dropped into the dreamless sleep of cowards.

###

Wake.

Mylo regained consciousness with a start.

The Bandit King suffers greatly from the healing of the powerstone. His weakness is your chance to make this right.

That’s right, the Bandit King had a mechanical arm. Mylo had never lost something as extensive as an arm before, but he imagined it would be extremely painful to regrow. If he could recover his powerstone, he could undo the damage he had done. He could lead the Bandit King away from the villagers.

If the Preserver saw fit to wake him, he needed to be ready. The bandits sat around the bonfire, singing songs off-key and laughing at grotesque jokes.

An out-of-place shadow alerted Mylo to the presence of someone sneaking towards him. In the dark, he couldn’t make it out. As it came closer, he realized it was Keelan.

“What are you doing out here?” Mylo hissed.

Keelan answered in a small voice. “You saved my maahi. I owe you this much.”

He cut Mylo free. “My father laced their drink with incantum.”

Mylo rubbed his wrists and tried to work the circulation back into his arms. “Where does he want me?”

“He wants you to leave.” Keelan sheathed his dagger. “Most of the villagers blame you for what happened, and he doesn’t want you to get hurt by their foolishness.”

Mylo nodded. “It is for the best.”

The young boy nearly took Mylo off his feet with his hug. “I will always remember you.”

Mylo returned the hug. “I’ll be back someday, Keelan, just wait.”

Mylo rubbed his wrists to wake them from their slumber. His limbs trembled with weakness, and he leaned against the guard tower.

“Use the escape hatch. We will attack soon, so you need to be out of the way before things get ugly.” Keelan whispered before disappearing into the shadows of the leaning huts.

There was only one guard at the escape hatch, leaning against the wall, sound asleep. He wore no mask or pendant, but there was an aura of blue elemental dust that surrounded him.

The hair on the back of Mylo’s neck stood up on end. Water Elementi.

With his healing powerstone, he might have risked a fight, but as vulnerable as he was now, he would just have to sneak by him.

Every noise sent his heart into his throat as he crept past the guard. Nearly at the edge of the clearing, he slipped on the uneven ground hidden in the tall grass.

The noise woke the guard. “Who’s there?”

Mylo held still. Animalian night vision was far superior to Elementi, so even if he could see the guard, it didn’t mean the guard could see him.

The sounds of a struggle inside the village caught the attention of the guard. He left his post to defend his fellow bandits.

Mylo climbed to the top of the tallest tree and looked for smoke from a fire. That would be where the bandits were camped.

It wasn’t far.

Mylo climbed down the tree. He had to work fast; there were far more dangerous things abounding in the night than a camp full of bandits. With any luck, the biggest monsters would think twice before walking into a camp of armed men. On the other hand, monsters weren’t known for their brilliance.

The rain started as a gentle mist, so fine that Mylo hardly noticed it.

When it turned to raindrops, it was a lazy sprinkle.

It wasn’t until the water began to swirl around his ankles that alarm bells started going off in Mylo’s head.

Flash flood.

The sky broke open with the sound of mountains crashing against one another, and torrents of rain fell so hard that Mylo couldn’t see but a few feet in front of his face.

He struggled against the currents running through the forest. He had to get to the camp. This was the perfect distraction.

Climb.

I have to keep going. The camp is in the next clearing.

When a bandit went floating by next to him, he realized that he should have listened to the voice of wisdom. The water was up to his waist, and he lost the tug-a-war against the current. He went under the swirl of mud and branches. He fought for the surface, but the currents held him under.

This can’t be the way I die.

Inky darkness pulled at the corners of Mylo’s eyes.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: King Dresden banished the former Mineralite king to the Outlands as an act of mercy but that is going to cause so many problems for the exiles now.

Get the inside scoop on upcoming chapters, interesting facts about OUR world, and other bookish content in my reader group, Book Magpies.